Metal casting is a process wherein liquid metal is typically poured into a mold having a mold cavity, allowed to solidify, and the solidified metal ejected or removed from the mold producing a part or component. A pattern is an original template from which the mold is prepared and is used to create the mold cavity in the mold material. Cores are typically placed in the mold cavity and used to produce tunnels or holes in the cast part.
During an automated molding process relatively complex machines incorporating mechanical, hydraulic and/or pneumatic systems produce a mold and then place it in a desired location. Such a molding machine can compress sand around a pattern to produce a mold-half. The mold-half is then placed in a line or string of molds and subsequently moved, also known as indexed, to a new position. The indexing of the mold-half to a new position naturally indexes the entire mold string and prevents the pouring of liquid metal into a mold cavity during this time. Current state-of-the-art machines allow for pouring only one mold cavity at a time. Once indexed to the new position, a hydraulic or pneumatic mechanical device is typically used to contact the top surface of the mold in order to hold the mold in place while subsequent operations take place. This mechanical device is commonly known as a mold hold down. Currently, mold hold downs operate from a fixed location.
After the mold-half has been moved or indexed to a new position, a filter, core, inoculants or any other item commonly used in the casting of metals can be placed within lie internal section of the mold cavity using a mechanical device known as a core setter. The filter, core, inoculants and any other item is held in place with a core mask. For highly automated operations, the core setter places a component at the same location relative to the mold cavity for each mold.
Automated molding machines allow for increased production in the casting of metal parts. However, improvements in the mold production process have resulted in the pouring of liquid metal into a mold cavity becoming the rate-determining step in the molding/casting cycle producing cast parts. Therefore, it would be desirable to have a molding machine that allows for the pouring of two molds simultaneously while said machine produces two additional molds.